The present invention is directed to tote boxes or containers typically employed in manufacturing plants as receptacles for storing or transporting parts in bulk. Conventionally, these tote boxes usually take the form of a wooden pallet having upstanding sidewalls to constitute a simple, open-topped box which can be readily transported by a forklift truck.
In recent years, it has been found practical to construct pallets from molded plastic material, such as polypropylene or similar materials. Plastic pallets of this type may be readily formed by a molding operation, a much more efficient production method than the cutting and nailing together of the various parts of a conventional wooden pallet. Plastic pallets of this type typically take the form of either a one-piece pallet in which the load supporting platform is formed with downwardly projecting feet (to provide access for forklift tines beneath the platform) or in some cases made from identical upper and lower halves having mating male and female projections on the inner side of the platform which may be joined or interlocked to support the two platforms in spaced relationship to each other, again to provide for access of forklift tines beneath the uppermost platform.
The present invention is especially concerned with a sidewall assembly constructed from molded plastic sidewall elements which, for use upon a square pallet, are of identical construction and which may be firmly and rigidly locked in assembled relationship with each other without requiring the use of any separate fastening elements or bonding steps.